Shattering Stereotypes: A Demographic Look at Children in the United States.

Outtz, Janice Hamilton

This report presents five commonly held stereotypes about children in the United States and analyzes their validity through discussion of data related to each. These stereotypes include: (1) births to unmarried women have increased tremendously mostly because of women of color; (2) child poverty is a problem in the inner city, not in the suburbs or rural areas; (3) the two-parent family is a thing of the past, with few children living with both parents; (4) the majority of children whose mothers receive welfare live with many siblings, and their mothers deliberately have babies to get more welfare money; and (5) most of the babies born today have parents of different races. Relevant demographic data is used to show why each of these stereotypes is invalid. Two appendices provide additional stereotypes and a demographic profile of children in the Unites States. A list of selected publications from the Center for Demographic Policy of the Institute for Educational Leadership is included. Contains 18 references. (MDM)